Invite your friends to read Ignatius of Zion
Opening the Referral System - Small Gifts Inside.
I'm quite pleased with the readership of this blog/mailing list. It's not at all obvious to me that people would dedicate their time to read posts that I write week after week. I started this Substack at the end of September, and since then, I'm happy to see that people are reading, asking questions, and generally expressing satisfaction with what they read here.
In fact, the only reason I'm able to write week after week is precisely because of this response. My writing is improving - not just online - and many of my ideas are becoming sharper, simply because if I didn't have this format, many of them would be too small to invest in writing about in any other format. So first of all, thank you.
Substack offers a new feature that allows others to help me reach more readers. The way it's supposed to work is that each of you can open a link from the button in this post, and share it with friend(s) who you think might be interested in this Substack. If your friend subscribes to the mailing list, I see it "behind the scenes" - and can offer you a small gift as thanks.
Here are the things I'm offering, but as I said, these are really just modest gifts intended to express gratitude for helping with distribution:
3 friends = Thanks in the next post.
A public thank you in the next post I write. This is the most basic gift and really the minimum I can do for your help in spreading the Substack.
10 friends = Personalized reading list.
This is a somewhat ambitious gift, especially in the AI era, but wait a moment. First, this list will obviously be limited to texts I've read or have in-depth familiarity with. But beyond that, here's a story.
About five years ago, a friend of mine approached me requesting a reading list of ten to twenty books, as she wanted to enrich her life with deeper conversations with some of the people around her. Of course, I strongly refused. After a campaign of persuasion, I agreed, and the great wonder was that she actually read those books and enjoyed them.
Another friend of mine heard about this and wouldn't accept the injustice of not receiving such a list for herself. She also read all the books.
Today, in many ways, I look up to both of them - and I'm happy that I may have had a small part in that.
Two years later, a friend of mine who teaches at some yeshiva heard about this story and requested a list of his own. With very little connection, but I'd like to believe that perhaps partly influenced by our relationship, the conversations over the years, and maybe even the list - he went to study a degree in history and philosophy. He too is in a different place today.
These aren't magic formulas. These are lists I created from knowing the purposes these people were striving toward, and today I feel more comfortable offering this. After all, in the vast majority of cases, I didn't invent the recommendations for the people who will appear on these lists.25 friends = 20 pages from the book I'm writing.
Here too, it's more of a gesture. I've been working on a particular subject for several years and occasionally find time to write a draft of a book. The book is, of course, about "luck." These are pages I haven't shown to any living soul until now, but they reflect, I hope, deep thought and an attempt to achieve clarity on a rather elusive subject. It's quite a personal gift, but I think at least these pages already present a level of finish that allows for it.
All you have to do, should you choose to help me, is to use the link you’ll find in the following page and share it with your friend. If he signs up, it goes on the record as your referral.
To learn more, check out Substack’s FAQ.
Thank you for helping get the word out about Ignatius of Zion!